Photo by @bormot — taken in Helsinki, Finland

Timely and Ethically Sustainable AI

Finland’s National Project AuroraAI and the Implementation of Their National Programme

Finland has perhaps the most ambitious bet on AI in the Nordics and was the first country amongst the Nordic countries to have a national AI strategy. Finland is famous as well for its free online course on artificial intelligence called Elements of AI (not to be confused with the company Element AI). Part of the implementation strategy is AuroraAI, so in this case one could wonder what this implementation is about. Therefore I thought I would help by shining a light on different aspects within AuroraAI by taking a look at their report and outlined strategy for 2019–2023.

“The aim of the Aurora national artificial intelligence (AI) programme is to implement an operations model based on people’s needs, where artificial intelligence helps citizens and companies to utilise services in a timely and ethically sustainable manner.” [bold added]

Thus my headline for this article. It is clearly stated that this effort is aimed towards sustainability, and this is a step beyond several other strategies that has no mention of sustainability or climate at all. In a way it is in addition an operational ethics network.

• Implementing an ethically functioning artificial intelligence network, which will help to allocate the services correctly.

This effort is assisted by the AuroraAI support team. The preliminary project was from 15 September 2018 to 28 February 2019. During this time the first test version of the AuroraAI network of smart services and applications was created, as was the Development and implementation plan for AuroraAI 2019–2023.

Interaction is an important part of AuroraAI. Communications are carried out in order to reach people and encourage them to engage in open dialogue about the topic in the Slack service, Twitter and LinkedIn under the hashtag #AuroraAI. Indeed they specifically ask you to contact Aleksi Kopponen or Niko Ruostetsaari to be added.

What Will AuroraAI Be Doing From 2019–2023?

AuroraAI is a concept for human-centric and ethical society in the age of artificial intelligence. Implementation of AuroraAI in the next government term is scheduled as the following:

1. Appropriation of €100m (Ministry of Finance) for the implementation of a human-centric, secure and ethical society in the AI age.
2. Launch of a rigorous consulting process with citizens and businesses to identify key life-events and business activities that should be made more efficient and effective.
3. Launch of the operational change process for selected life-events and business activities.
4. Supporting the implementation by establishing a change support team and a central AuroraAI response centre. Establishment of a support function for the AuroraAI network under the Population Register Centre.

So what is the populations register centre?

Population Register Centre’s tasks in AuroraAI

The Population Register Centre is responsible for promoting societal digitalisation and producing and developing electronic services for citizens, the public sector and businesses.

The centre has five primary tasks in AuroraAI:

1. Responsible for the establishment of the AuroraAI service architecture
2. Responsible for the development and production of AuroraAI core services
3. Provides technological support for joining organisations and services
4. Responsible for the AuroraAI connection agreements
5. Produces situational data for the AuroraAI network
6. Provides support on the use of the interoperability platform

Another large part is working life, and it is argued that it is important with re-education alongside work and other initiatives.

From the report

Hope this was helpful.

This is #500daysofAI and you are reading article 197. I write one new article about or related to artificial intelligence every day for 500 days.